Louisiana rice farmers get late start, finish fast

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Despite late planting due to a cold, wet spring, Louisiana's rice crop is looking good, while planting
problems in Arkansas may boost U.S. rice prices a bit.

"I think we'll establish a record" for
pounds per acre, said Johnny Saichuk, rice expert for the LSU AgCenter.
Though final
harvest figures aren't in, he said the 2013 crop has been helped
by the fact that low temperatures on very few summer nights
were above 75 degrees.

"It's the best crop we've had in a long, long time," said farmer Jim Lingo of Oak Grove in West Carroll Parish. He said Monday
that he hadn't yet begun harvesting his 320 acres of rice, but his father and brother, who have about 1,000 acres in rice,
were reaping an early harvest well above average.

Prices may rise a bit because the cold, wet weather that delayed Louisiana's planting kept some farmers in Arkansas — the
nation's usual top producer — from planting at all.

Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that Arkansas farmers planted just over 1 million acres, University
of Arkansas extension service rice expert Jerrod Hardke thinks it's closer to 975,000. That's nearly 25 percent less than
planned and would be the first time in about three decades that fewer than 1 million acres have been planted in Arkansas,
he said.

"We were looking at planting intentions of 1.25 million acres," Hardke said.

Saichuk estimated that Louisiana farmers planted up to 400,000 acres this season — in the ballpark of last year's 391,000
acres.

Louisiana's rice acreage never recovered
from Hurricane Rita, which hit the southwest part of the state about a
month after
Katrina hit the southeast in 2005, Saichuk said. Farmers had
planted an average of 508,000 acres a year since 2000, but the
2006 total fell to 347,000. USDA figures — generally higher than
state figures — put the average from 2006 on at 431,000 acres.

"Certainly a smaller crop in Arkansas would push the prices up for all the farmers," AgCenter economist Mike Salassi said.

He said prices have trended up from $14.50 per 100 pounds, or hundredweight, in August 2012 to $15.50 this past July.

Salassi attributes some of the increase to
crop estimates. He also said that the United States produces too little
rice to
affect world prices. About 1.2 percent of the world's milled rice
comes from the United States, according to the U.S. Department
of Agriculture.

The current price "is close to or just above break-even" for farmers, Salassi said, because production costs — particularly
fuel and fertilizer — have risen so much. "Even when you have stable prices and yield, you're still a little behind where
you were in the previous year."

The record yield, set in 2011, is 6,717 pounds per acre — or, as Louisiana farmers figure it, 41.5 barrels at 162 pounds each
in the south of the state and 149.3 bushels (45 pounds each) in northern parishes.

Lingo said early harvests this year for his father and brother have ranged from 190 to 220 bushels per acre, compared with
an average of 160 to 180 bushels.

However, "green yields" at harvest are
generally higher than official yields, noted Steve Linscombe, director
of the LSU AgCenter
Rice Research Station in Crowley.

"As the rice is coming out of the field, it could be 20 to 21 percent grain moisture. Our official reported yields are always
at 12 percent grain moisture, after they've been dried," he said.

What's more important, Linscombe said, is early indications of high milling quality.

"Starting with 100 pounds of paddy or rough
rice, when you mill it, you want to end up with 70 pounds of milled rice
— and
you want at least 60 pounds to be whole grain," he said. Linscomb
said a Crowley mill manager said his early percentages are
slightly higher than those figures.